Abstract. I have been observing and taking photometric
measurements of the comet Hale-Bopp since last November. Photometry is
the measurement of the brightness of light (Brandt, Chapman, 1984). By
using the CCD (charge coupled device) camera I was able to obtain an image
of the comet. Then data reduction on the comet was performed to determine
the how bright the comets head is. The formula for determining the magnitude
of the comet is: Mag. Comet=Extracted Mag. Object-Extracted Mag. Ref.+2.5log(time
object/time ref.)+know mag. Of ref.star. My results show that the comets
magnitude has increased since last November. As of March 12, 1997 the magnitude
was about 1. Next I applied Morris' law to my data to determine the magnitude
of the comet vs. the distance of the comet from the Sun. Morris' law states:observed
mag.=absolute mag.+5log (delta)+2.5n log (r). The "n" in the equation determines
how rapid the comet changes brightness the closer it gets to the Sun. N=4
is the overall average for comets and my data states that n=8 which means
that this is a very volatile comet. This comet is so large and so volatile
that we can hypothesize that Hale-Bopp has not made many trips around the
Sun and is probably a "virgin" comet.